Today’s Tarot: It’s OK to be OK

“There is no problem without a gift for you in its hands” – Richard Bach

“If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, then you probably haven’t checked with your answering service lately” – Hawkeye Peirce

Energies are starting to shift.

Pentacles have been in our face the past month or so, with good reason, calling our attention to the physical realm and asking us to be practical. It was time to “work the problem” and do what needs done, even if what needs done is to stay the heck at home.

The Ten is different this time. The ten, being the largest of the number cards, not only symbolizes a good ending or a good outcome (and reassures us that better times are ahead) but also points to intangible things more than the other numbered pentacle cards. The ten reminds us of a good outcome that is made of all the things that money can never buy. Health, happiness, love, family, peace, contentment and all of the abstract things essential to the human spirit.

There is nothing wrong with experiencing those things, even in the middle of chaos, boredom or isolation. We aren’t a victim of circumstance if we deal with our circumstances and move on to value the important things beyond it. It is OK to be OK in spite of it all. It’s OK to give up diversions for a while when the important things are still there. It is OK to adapt to circumstances, especially when weird circumstances are teaching us what our important things are.

Update: The $5 off email readings has been extended to May 8 to match our local stay at home orders. I’ve tweeked the website just a little bit in spots to make it a little more useable on phones and tablets. Mobile or not, feel free to browse around, check out the new organization on the pages and menu. Eyes open! The free one card digital  InkMagick Tarot reading by email is still available, so look for the free Tarot and special offer links.

Phone a Friend

Thank you, thank you.

I SO appreciate everyone who reads this, follows on the socials, trusts me to do readings for you…you all are unfailingly awesome!

I had a really enjoyable phone reading this afternoon. (Thank you so much you-know-who-you-are!) Shout out to WordPress for the PayPal buttons that are making phone readings work out this time. In the past, payment and scheduling were so confusing for clients and there was such low demand that I mothballed phone readings ages ago.

But (insert Poltergeist move voice) they’re baaa-aaack!

Due to the Pandemic and my desire to oh, I dunno, stay alive,  in-person readings are closed until a vaccine comes along. Phone sessions are the only real-time reading I can offer right now. I have to admit, it is kind of nostalgic and fun. We are talking old school friendly psychic phone readings, only without the triple digit surprises on your phone bill, high per-minute charges or sneaky connection fees.

Interested? It’s easy. Just go to the PHONE READINGS page in the menu.  Buy the session (5 or 7 cards) using the PayPal button – just like you would order anything you buy online. Then use the contact form provided to schedule your reading. Call me at the scheduled time and POOF! Live Tarot happens.

So stay home! Phone readings are available now, and the discounted prices on email readings have been extended to May 8 to match the local stay at home orders.

Now go wash your hands and stop touching your face!

Hello from Pandemicland

Lordy.

Being from a medical background, the old B.S. Med. Sci.  part of my brain has been following Covid-19 medical reports, including unexplained hypercoagulability, unexpected pulmonary thrombosis only discovered at autopsy, silent hypoxia in the presence of near normal CO2…and that a second wave of  sars-cov-2 is expected to hit right at the start of typical flu season AND be worse than the initial wave we are having now.

#holycrap! #staythefuckathome #washyourdanghands

I won’t bore you with my medical history, but long story short, in-person sessions are closed until somebody squirts a vaccine in my arm. Anything else would be A. crazy and B. irresponsible.

THE GOOD NEWS is that we still have distance readings. Truth be told, I do my best work that way. Typing on a keyboard is like a broadband download right from my intuition. I can do deep dives into the spirit message without the really awkward social silences that would happen if I did that in a live session.

Deep dives aren’t for everyone. If you want something a little lighter, warmer and chatty…video readings are a great option. You get the conversational style of a live reading but with the no-appointment convenience and reduced cost of distance work.

Or, if you want the full live reading experience – phone readings are back! Just like those old school psychic friend phone readings…but without the triple digit surprises on your phone bills, per minute charges or connection fees. We are going to do this the modern way:

  1. Buy the session with the paypal button HERE
  2. Schedule the session HERE
  3. Call at your appointment time (by phone, Skype or Hangouts)
  4. POOF! Done! Live reading!

I’ve also updated the website with mobile users in mind. It’s all up front and obvious at the top of the landing page reducing amount of scrolling and rummaging around the menu.

FREE “digital InkMagick” one card readings by email are still available on the special offers page

Did I mention stay home? Email reading prices are $5 off for the duration of the stay at home order or April 30, 2020 whichever comes first.

Stay tuned for more YouChoose Interactive Tarot. I want to give you more POOF for your time out of those, too. Instead of random interactive readings by day, look for them on Sundays or Monday morning to serve as a look ahead to the week to come. Other videos will be the usual “Today’s Tarot” one card meditation style.

Other good stuff in the works, stay tuned, and as they say “watch this space”

Now go wash your hands.

Stay safe and be well – Ronda

 

 

Today’s Tarot: Do Your Way

Today’s Tarot: Eight of Pentacles – yes, pentacles. This is still resonating with the pandemic. Stay home, don’t touch your face, clean everything, and wash your hands

Back in the long dark days before the webbernets, we had coffee mugs, posters and t-shirts instead of memes.

Somewhere along the way, on something like that, I read “Don’t think yourself into a new way of doing, do yourself into a new way of thinking.” At first I wrote it off as a hallmark grade shallow platitude, but for some annoying reason it stuck in memory along with other 70s debris like the “keep on truckin'” shirt and pet rocks. Much later, after I started working with holistic health, it came in handy as an example of the mind-body connection. The mind-body connection is very much a two way street. Even more than our little leftover platitude would suggest.

It’s true (see the literature review in my dissertation) that changing you mindset, or in other words, “decreasing perceived stress” will have a positive impact on physical well being. It is also true that physical wellness can have a positive impact on our emotional outlook. The idea is to bring mind, body and spirit into best possible balance and function. Books have been written about how to do that. The kicker is where to start, which is very much an individual choice. Do you start on the mental side and work you way into improved physical health or go physical and let the more comfortable body support a more relaxed mind and more pleasant emotions?

Just like Zombie Cat is my answer to Schrodinger’s thought experiment, my thought here is to do both, but that’s another story. I might have to fire up my old holistic health blog for that one. 

Today the 8 of Pentacles nudges us to a physical side start. The boilerplate advice these days seems to do something small, however minute, to give yourself a feeling of accomplishment or comfort; make the bed, water the houseplants, brush your hair, change out of those 2 day pajamas into a fresh pair of yoga pants….something. Do yourself into a fresher mental and emotional state while you are at it.

The intuitive feel around this card today is that it is aimed with direct targeting cross hairs at the privileged among us (myself included) who can stay home with functioning internet. uninterrupted utilities and pick up groceries. If you are fed, safe and well, you have no business complaining.

 

If you are out there in the thick of it, then the “do” in this case is all about self-care. The “do yourself into a new way of thinking” thing strikes me as way too snippy, and judgy, implying that anybody’s thinking needs changed. If anything, the “change” is to decrease stress and find some tiny granule of hope in it all. To “do” yourself into that, take care of yourself, even if right now that care comes in the form of a crappy cup of coffee or a five minute chair nap. And thank you for what you do.

Now everybody go wash your hands.

Today’s Tarot: Lingering Winter

The Five of Penticals still points very strongly to the physical realm. When I do these readings, it is with the intent of reading the general energies and hopefully giving a reading that is thought provoking or in some way helpful to the broadest audience possible.

Today there is a sense of a three way split, with a slightly different idea for each group.

Again, at least here in the U.S. the pandemic is the top of mind issue and the dominant energy. All three, however, reming of long winters. We are in the late January equivalent of this energy wave. We are in the dark heart of a long and lingering winter, do to speak.

Some may feel cautiously optimistic. You are right, this will end, but for a long while and not with rainbows and unicorns you might think. Nurture that optimism, it is like a flower poking up through the snow. But don’t get too carried away just yet. Temper and balance that optimism with realism and practicality. This isn’t over yet. Don’t panic, things will change, but at their pace, not ours. Plan in case scarcity last longer than you think.

Others may feel just plain terrible, and the bleak imagery on most five of coins cards captures that feeling. You are totally justified in feeling that way. Things are terrible in a lot of ways for a lot of people. The initial zinging panic energy has already changed, even if it has changed into the low level him of persistent existential dread. There’s no easy remedy for that kind of mental and emotional headspace. I’m not talking about real depression or genuine mental health need, which is far outside the scope of this kind of this kind of blog. It speaks to the normal funk of a person put in a funky situation beyond their control. Here I get the mental image and sound of “it can’t rain all the time” from the movie “The Crow.” In 1816, a volcanic eruption in the south Pacific caused an ash cloud so severe that it caused crop failures in Europe. Even in that “year without a summer” Yes, things suck. Don’t deny or minimize how you feel about it, but at the same time don’t let it affect what DO about it. Persist. Keep plodding on through the deep snow drifts. It might be along winter, but it isn’t a forever winter. You aren’t in this alone. To continue the analogy with winter, we are all freezing our buns off together to one extent or another. You might be in an isolated cabin by yourself, but you are not in the storm alone.

The third group has pretty much just snapped. Cabin fever has boiled over. Whether they have carried an enormous burdon or were just fragile to start, some have been pushed beyond their means to cope and are operating from a place of fear and anger. That person isn’t reading this and probably couldn’t hear anything the card might suggest anyway.

It falls to the rest of us to protect ourselves from lingering in a place like that and from those who do. Whether you are walking around harboring a glimmer of hope, like sunshine on a freezing afternoon or if you are sitting in fully overcast gloom, we got this. Yes, mind your resources. Yes, honor your genuine feelings. Winter can sometimes linger, but it never lasts forever.

Taking the Advice the Cards Keep Giving

Now is not the time to press, to strive, to make big decisions – or try to learn to make good youtube content. Now is the time to be mindful. Pay attention to the here and now, even if it is isolated or terrible. But that’s easy for me to say, because right now I’m ok. I forget who said it, but mental and emotional suffering lies between how things are and how we wish them to be.  Now is a time to gather in our energies and make friends with where we are and who we are, no judgements, no goals, no expectations.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Plant

Pick a card. Pause the video if you need some time. Restart to seee the reveal, then you can scroll down to get your reading below. OR you can do you own reading. PeaceTarot ebook download can teach you how. (https://www.etsy.com/listing/248936426/peacetarot-e-book-how-to-do-daily)

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Left: Ace of Pentacles. “Bloom where you are planted.” The energies are a wind at your back, the near future is an opportune time for productivity and creativity in a very tangible way. Both the muses and the maker’s energies are with you. Be on the lookout for inspiration and opportunity to make or do something tangible.

Middle: Seven of Pentacles “Let the planted seeds grow.” In the 27 years that I’ve been reading cards, I’ve never seen a pattern so repeated, so loud, so clear as the energies have been for the past couple of months of the global pandemic.

Now is not the time for big innovation, change or being overly high-minded, or woo woo spiritual about things. Let the seeds that were sown grow. This is one of those time to leave well enough alone. Sit with what is and what has happened so far. This is very different from the major arcana Hanged Man energy. It isn’t stagnation…this is a needed, necessary quiet. We aren’t stuck, the best thing to DO is nothing, is to wait. Being at peace with that will reap harvest in its time. Finding out that you are not at peace with quiet and your own company is important too. Both are needed now in order to move forward at harvest time.

Right: Queen of Wands “Tend to your garden.” Again this is a clear, repeated message of the times. Take care of yourself and those near to you. Do what needs done. Protect yourself. Do the right thing to protect those around you. The Tarot is on the experts side. Again, just like with the Seven of Pentacles, no is not the time to push or innovate or be overly woo woo spiritual, Tend to the physical. The spiritual will come back in its time. Your endurance is needed. Sleep. Eat. Get outside when you safely can.

Social Distance is my Tarot specialty! I write Tarot as easily as speaking it face to face. A keyboard is a hotline to intutition for me. The connection comes from information, not physical presance. Spirit and energy exists everywhere, so I can get your message and send it anywhere. Order on the home page. Prices reduced through at least the end of April to help out during the pandemic.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Own It.

Pause the video if you need more time to pick your card, then restart to see the reveal. Scroll down to see your card reading. Please follow the blog so you don’t miss any of the learn-to-read-Tarot and other “my side of the table” written content that will be coming up over the next few months.

Left: Knight of Pentacles. “SUSTAIN” A knight that drops his shield in a battle doesn’t survive for very long. In this case “back to business” does NOT mean back to the way things were before. It means put on your big kid underwear and keep going, even if you are exhausted to the bone. Last month was alarms and claxons and responding to a real life and death emergency, collectively speaking. This isn’t recovery. This is keep going. Keep your guard up. This card is letting us know this isn’t close to over. We needed a period of mobilization, freak-out, and adjustment, without judgement. Now is the time to be adjusted already and sustain our response. Forget before. It’s time go get to the business of the business at hand. Energies are shifting from an all out sprint to a sustained, marathon endurance pace.

Center: Nine of Wands. Read the Knight of Pentacles, this is basically the same message on a slightly less literal and more mental/emotional level. Energies are shifting, but stay on guard. If you are empathic or otherwise energy sensitive, continue to set strong boundaries. Don’t be a victim. Be responsible. Do the self-care you need to sustain through this middle phase. There is no “back to normal.” Do what you need to do to be in a good head space right here, right now.

Right: The Star. “Thank the things that got you this far” This is also has a bit of a mental/emotional/spiritual spin to it, although it is important to know the physical realm people and resources that have helped you…and the things that can and will help you still. Pay it forward as best as you can both now and later. Less literally, think about the things that got you through the initial response and change and is helping you to sustain as we begin the middle of unknowable duration. What ideas, beliefs, people and practices have gotten you this far? What old beliefs that “should” be your rock and your shelter have crubled to dust under the weight of everything? What beliefs have supported and sustained you? What new shining star guides you when the world seems to spin out from under you? Forget before. What ideas and beliefs have proven their worth under these very real stresses be they old or new?

Buckaroo Bonzai said “No matter where you go, there you are.” Well, here we are. It isn’t like it was, but it is what we have. Now it is time to own what we do with it.

Today’s Tarot w/ Zombie Cat: A meeting of the minds

Braaaaiiiiiiinnss – they aren’t just for zombies anymore

It’s true that humans are social creatures. There is something primal about it that probably goes back to wolly mammoth BBQs. In modern times there is some other thread that ties us together other than pure group effort survival (altough some of that is needed nowadays too)

Wherever there is a meeting, there is a meeting of the minds. At a concert, it is the shared enjoyment of music. At a movie itvis the shared experience of images and stories. Pictures and stories don’t have to be called art and literature brain and emotion feeding kinds of things.

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you.” – Carl Sagan

Whether you are reading a book and communing with that unknown author, or chatting it up on facetime with grandma, it is still human interaction on a much needed mental and emotional level, if not the physical one.

During times when our physical beings are kept separate, it is all the more important to connect in a meeting of the minds.

Trust me on that one, because, you know, brains.